


The Grass Is Getting Greener Each Day

by Danesincry



Category: Splatoon
Genre: 8B is kinda fucked up but that's spoilers, Age Up, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, But only for some parts at the Octo Expansion and basically double agents and back storries, Culture Shock, Domestic Fluff, Drabble Collection, F/F, Female Slash, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Friend help me create this little universe around them, Hissing Octolings, I didn't play Splatoon One wUPS, It all connects, M/M, Male Slash, Memory Loss, Multiple point of view, Names given for the agents but they still call eachother by agent x, Past 4B x 8B mention, Past Relationship(s), Please just read it'll make sense, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Scars, Sign Language, Sleepy Cuddles, So 4 years after Splatoon 2/Octo Expansion, Splatfest (Splatoon), They're all 18 or above, Will reference agents by their number, but basically they can all be independent if you squint hard enough, male 8x3 focus, male agents and female agents, then B or G for boy or girl, there are two of each agents
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-06
Updated: 2018-08-28
Packaged: 2019-06-22 14:08:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 9,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15583632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Danesincry/pseuds/Danesincry
Summary: Four years after the Octolings had reached the Promise Land, their world had slowly turned for the better. All of the Agents struggled to accustom to the new stage of their lives, trying to forget the past, and some trying to remember. With the people they love, and the ones they trust. Will they ever reach the true Promise Land from here?-The Octoling slowly opened his eyes as he could feel the bed creak under him, dipping to compensate for the other that weighed more than him."Eight..." The quiet voice coerced him. "I'm so sorry for everything."The Octoling turned to look at the Inkling, blue eyes meeting green. "It's fine, Three."He doesn't remember what Three was apologizing for, but his fellow agent looked so troubled. He wanted to remember whatever happened.-This is a collection of drabbles based off of a chat log between me and my friend. It is centered around the Male Agent Eight and Male Agent Three. We made two Agents per number to help the lore we created behind the Eights! I hope you enjoy this story.





	1. Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> Here's the names of the Agents:
> 
> 3G - Yuuko  
> 3B - Cain
> 
> 4G - Takara  
> 4B - Xander
> 
> 8G - Halona  
> 8B - Kismet
> 
> Relationships to eachother (Not including Callie, Marie, Pearl, and Marina):
> 
> Past Xander x Kismet
> 
> Cain x Kismet
> 
> Halona x Takara
> 
> Cain and Yuuko are adoptive siblings  
> Xander and Takara are best friends  
> Halona and Kismet are siblings/twins/other
> 
> I promise as the drabbles pick up, a lot of the lore and basic relationships will take form and make so much more sense. There will be a lot of time skips, so bare with me, guys. Also, Cain and Kismet are gonna seem so much more different than they actually are in the first drabble because it was written way before the others came. 
> 
> PUBLIC PLAYLIST THAT INSPIRES SOME OF THE DRABBLES:
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRMmCAI2iw_yLnMiYDE7UfoCYAoPW8qIy

All Kismet could hear around him was the sound of ink flying, his heavy breathing and footsteps, and the yells of others as they ran around the map. Orange and blue ink was splattered everywhere around him, and he could tell orange was winning by how much was coating the ground.

It was a hot day in Inkopolis and Splatfest was quickly approaching around the corner. Everybody was trying to get in extra practice and secondary abilities for their gear, so the battles were jammed packed and busy. Kismet had waited at LEAST an hour to get into this battle, and he wasn’t going to lose this one. He had broke out his old Agent outfit, his black crop turtleneck and his black leggings. He had his Splatterscope this round, and he regretted it a lot. All of his opponents were close ranged.

Kismet loved to hide and scope out his opponents, but one of them found him and send a bomb into his area and forced him to swim away quickly through the nearby orange ink. But luck wasn’t on his side as he had to start on foot when he ran out of ink, running over enemy ink.

“C’mon…” Kismet mumbled as he sprinted around the corner. He could hear a quiet chuckle from behind him, alarming him that his pursuer was right behind him. 

Kismet managed to finally spot the orange ink that belonged to his team and dove into it. He didn’t turn around or look up until he had enough to send a blast and quickly popped up. Sadly, his pursuer was quicker and grabbed his Splatterscope, yanking it up so Kismet was attached by one hand, slightly hanging there. Kismet was pushed onto the wall by another hand as another chuckle came from the guy who trapped him in the dead end.

“H-hey!” Kismet called out, his eyes half closed from the sudden shock. “Is this even allowed-”

“They never said we couldn’t touch your weapon, darling.”

Kismet finally opened his eyes all the way and looked up to see a male inkling towering over him. He was at least a good eight inches above him, so he was most likely six foot. That was if Kismet was accurately comparing them. But the inkling had his tentacles pulled back into what seemed like a man bun. His eyes were blue and he had freckles dusting his face. He looked pleased with himself as he held Kismet there. He had an ugly cape on above a turtleneck and a bright yellow vest. He had a Splat Roller strapped to his back, above his ink tank. Kismet’s eyes widened. His own ink tank had fallen in the tussle. But maybe he could hit it and make it splat the inkling.

“What’s wrong?” The inkling smiled and leaned in. Kismet could smell he had eaten some type of fruit recently. “Never seen an inkling as pretty as yourself?”

Kismet sputtered for a second before trying to struggle.

“H-hey! I don’t have time for this and this is against the rules! Let me go!” Kismet totally wasn’t blushing.

“Ahw, I’m not hurting you. I couldn’t hurt such a cute little Octoling.” The Inkling smirked as he watched Kismet struggle in his hold.

Kismet didn’t know what was this Inkling’s problem, but he needed to get out of this and splat him. Kismet glanced down to his ink tank, which laid next to his feet that stood on their tiptoes. Kismet tried to reach his foot to it, but the Inkling caught on and kicked it away.

“Not this time, darling.” The Inkling smiled.

“Twenty seconds!” The announcer called out and the Inkling glanced at the speaker that was above them before glancing back down to Kismet.

“I guess that is a sign for me to leave you now.” The inkling dropped the Splatterscope and Kismet fell down into the puddle of ink.

The inkling turned and walked a few feet, leaving Kismet in the ink, before he turned back around.

“Oh,” the inkling smirked. “I hope I can see you again, Eight.”

Kismet’s eyes widened as the inkling sent an air kiss his way and pulled out his weapon. He brought the Splat Roller down, sending a quick torrent of ink and Kismet could feel himself splat and get sent back to the respawn point. He got a glimpse of the inkling laughing to himself and wiping ink off of his freckled cheek.

Kismet respawned after the timer was done, and fell to the ground as they announced that his team had in fact lost. He covered his face with his hands and groaned into them. He could feel his teammates moving around him, and he heard one ask if he was okay. Quickly Kismet nodded and stood up. He avoided eye contact with the rest of the players as he pushed through the group and to the door.

Another round with another group would clear his mind of the flirty and totally not cute inkling.


	2. You know, Kismet isn’t that great at his emotions. None of them are.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A day later.
> 
> Also, by now there are a few other agents and they have people who are in on their stuff and act as spies within the Octarian army.

Halona didn’t know how much she could take of this.

Kismet was sprawled across her bed in her shared room with Takara, who sat on her own bed as she watched the two. Halona sat on her desk chair, her chin resting on the back of it, as she watched her partner and best friend talk like a love sick fool.

“Halona! He lifted me off the ground and pushed me against the wall!” Kismet put a hand onto his face and said in a very distressed manor.

“Yes, ‘Met, I heard you the first time. Mystery cute boy knows who you are and called you cute.” Halona sighed and pushed her tentacle out of her face as it fell into her sight.

“You said it was an inkling, right?” Takara asked as she rolled back onto her back and sat up. “We can ask Xander or Yuuko to find him. Callie might even help.” 

Kismet sat up quickly and Halona silently cursed her girlfriend for even suggesting that.

“Takara! I can’t face him! He’s obviously older and so much more cuter and UHG!” Kismet fell back onto the bed dramatically.

“He knows you’re one of the two Agent Eights. He’s obviously an Agent too, or he’s a spy. Just find out which ones are inklings and BOOM! You got yourself dream boy.” Takara snorted. “And if we really want to find him, just ask Cain.”

 

Halona could see Kismet’s face twist in confusion and Halona knew that Kismet and Cain together in the same room wouldn’t last long enough. Cain was even more quiet and distant than Yuuko. Both of them spent time in solitude together, a long time, and they didn’t mix well with some of the others. They knew that the two Agent Three’s were ruthless when it came down to it. It was harder for them to conform to Octolings sharing the same city, but after Halona managed to save Yuuko from being sanitized, the two opened up to inklings. Nowadays, Cain is either in his room reading and eating or he’s almost always in the aerial battles. Cain was more reserved than Yuuko, but he was very sharp mouthed. Kismet wouldn’t last a minute talking to Cain. If Kismet had remembered Cain.

“Takara… I don’t think it's the best that Kismet even meet Cain. No offense Kismet, but you’d turn into a useless gay again. Like how you used to be with Xander when you two first met.” Halona smiled at Kismet, who blushed and huffed.

“I don’t think I should even see the guy again! He pushed me against the wall and was a brute about it!” Kismet turned away from them.

“Useless angry gay.” Takara smiled and rolled her eyes. Takara then turned her attention to her girlfriend. “What about you? Don’t you want to see the guy who turned your usually uninterested partner to a mushy blushy mess? The silent boy of the group, Halona.”

Halona shrugged and spun herself. “I don’t know… He seems like a playboy.” 

Takara rolled her eyes and got up. “Well, I’m going to go grab some food.”

The two Octolings watched as Takara left with a smirk on her face.

-

Down the hallway, in a door room marked with a large 3, two Inklings sat on parallel beds. The two inklings faced each other as they talked quietly. It wasn’t unusual for the two to sit on their beds and discuss their days as they scrolled through social media.

“So, you saw Eight again today?” Yuuko raised an eyebrow as she glanced up from her phone.

“Yeah. The boy.” Cain rubbed the back of his neck. 

Cain remembers bits a pieces of the last time he saw the younger octoling. It was four years ago almost, and all he could remember from the last glimpses was the boy being put on a stretcher as a girl octoling cried over him. He was laid on his side due to the ink tank that was strapped to him. Cain had met the girl Octoling almost a month later as Agent Four, or Takara, was showing her around the premises. He learned her name was Halona and that she was the octoboy’s basically twin sister. Or she said they were sort of like twins. It didn’t make sense to him.

“He’s grown a little from the time we’ve last saw him together.” Yuuko clicked off her phone. “He’s filled out some finally. Awfully cute, isn’t he?”

Cain rolled his eyes at his sister’s antics. He couldn’t get a break from her.

“Yeah. It was weird seeing him again. He didn’t even recognize me.” Cain turned to pick up a small glass dome that encased an old gift. He kept it under his bed to hide it from the world.

The gift was a small cake, which was shaped and colored like an Octarian tentacle. There was an odd feeling that came from the cake. It was slightly squishy to the touch, but not like an actual cake at all. 

“Cain… did he give you a gift all that time ago?” Yuuko leaned forward, eyeing the cake. “That’s so sweet!”

“He gave it to me when I smashed him out of that blender. You’re lucky you didn’t have to break Halona out of the death trap.” Cain blushed and pulled it away.

“Do you.. Know what that is, Cain?” Yuuko looked back up to him. “You must have stricken him smitten when you two were younger.”

“H-hey! Don’t say things like that. He’s still a kid.” Cain put it back under his bed after Yuuko managed to snap a picture on her phone.

“Cain,” she looked up. “He’s 18 for God’s sake. You’re like… 20.” 

Cain rolled his eyes and stood up. “Whatever. It’s not like I’m crushing on the kid.”

“Mmmm…” Yuuko hummed as she started to text someone again, knowing whatever he said at this point was probably a lie. “Sure.”


	3. Just because they’re too old to party with kids doesn't mean they can't party together.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so the original prompt was 
> 
> "3B and 8B finally meet for real at a Splatfest after party and get drunk, and they would probably grind up on each other in their drunken state and then go home together. Think Get Lucky by Daft Punk basically"
> 
> So like.... You can just assume that they hooked up or did some dirty dancing and 3B kinda swooped him back home and just let him borrow sleeping shorts to wear to bed and gave him the bed and took the couch. It's really up to you! In this house we love the 4's and 8's being 18 and the 3's being 20 and definitely legal.
> 
> Also,,, yes we hinted at the purple drink being alcohol but.... not? I don't know.
> 
> If you look carefully you can see plot hints and major spoilers at what's to come!
> 
> But after this chapter, theres a lot of time skips and not everything will be in order! Like trust me, the next chapter might be before or after this.

Kismet didn’t know why he was there.

All around Kismet was his fellow agents and some octolings and inklings he didn't know. The room pulsed with loud music that was a mix of annoying pop music and a few selections of the Squid Sisters and Off The Hook. This wasn’t Kismet’s type of parties. He had paperwork to do and research on Sanitation to go over. It was a big project and he needed to crack it so they could stop it.

But Halona wanted to get him out and socializing. Not his strong point. He truly only wanted to socialize when he was in a turf battle or doing field work. This of course, excluded Halona, Takara, and maybe Xavier if he is in the right mood.

“Kismet!” A female voice shrilled over the blasting music, making Kismet jump in his seat and almost drop his glass of… whatever this was. It had a bitter taste in the back of his throat and was oddly purple.

“Takara.” Kismet looked up from his cup of death and smiled shyly. He wasn’t surprised that she would walk up to him and probably try to make him socialize.

“You should come dance with us. All of us are here, and we know you don’t even interact with other Octarians much! Come join us!” Takara smiled at him. Her yellow eyes gleaming with joy. 

Takara wasn’t a bad person. She just chose to put Kismet through bad situations. She almost cut his tentacle, which would have ended bad for them all, claiming she wanted him to try doing it since Halona wouldn’t. Takara’s own yellow tentacles framed her face, cut short at her chin. They healed over to make them seem naturally short, but everyone knew that they would grow out to be as long as Yuuko’s if she never cut them.

Kismet needed to stop drinking whatever this was, it was making him lose focus.

“I… don’t think its that great of an idea.” Kismet sighed and sat his drink down onto the table.

“Nah, you’ll be fine! Just come with me!” And without letting him complain, Takara and her zero impulse control just grabbed him and yanked him out of his seat.

Kismet tried to overpower her, but with her strength and height beating him, she just dragged him onto the dance floor and through the mass of what was their age group. The very first Octolings above ground and the first Inklings to see them.

At some point of them walking through, Takara let go of Kismet and left him as someone called her name and she quickly turned away to see who it was. This let Kismet get lost as he tried to stumble after her. Kismet could feel dread sink into his stomach as he was in between moving bodies. 

Thankfully, the music suddenly died down and everyone stopped moving to pay attention to where an older looking Inkling stood on a stage.

“Hey guys! Marina and Pearl just announced that Diamond won! Pearl is triumphant again!” The inkling was clad with white and seemed happy as he called out the winners of Splatfest.

Kismet himself was wearing white clothing to signify that he had chose Diamond instead of Gold. The Gold members were wearing a gold like color, but obviously not shiny. 

“Ahw man.” A voice next to Kismet grumbled. Kismet glanced and saw the guy was wearing the odd mustard like color. The poor guy. “Yuuko won the bet.”

This caught Kismet’s attention. He recognized the voice from somewhere, and he knew only one Inkling named Yuuko, and Octolings tended to choose tame names or older names. Kismet’s name was an example. He chose it from an old human book that was called “Boy Names That Aren’t Used Anymore” or something dumb like that when he reached the surface. Other than the unnamed Octolings, their names were just calm names that held no meaning. Halona was lucky to be given a name when she was born. And he seriously needed to ask Takara what that drink was.

Kismet turned more to peek a look at the Inkling and saw a familiar face. He knew this Inkling for sure. The Inkling looked down at him and smiled at him.

“Oh! Little Eight!” The Inkling leaned in to put an arm around him. “I’ve been looking for you.”

It was the Inkling from the one match. This made Kismet’s stomach flip. His eyes were a dark blue in the lighting and he seemed to be under something, maybe the strange drink.

“Y-you what?” Kismet asked and the Inkling looked around before pulling him close and pulling him to the edge of the crowd as the announcer said a small promo and started to turn the music back up.

“You know, you’re pretty cute and I just wanted to talk about… I don’t remember. I wanted to see if you were okay and not critically handicapped or anything.” The odd Inkling dragged him back to chairs and sat him down.

“What…?” Kismet huffed and leaned closer to listen better as the music turned up more. The INkling did the exact same.

“I’m Agent Three. The name is Cain.” Cain shrugged. “I was there to break you out of the blender and afterwards…”

Kismet blinked. He didn’t remember anything after he was thrown into the blender… Or really anything with Cain at all. He remembered Yuuko came in for a small point but then left after she saved them.

“I’m sorry…. I don’t remember you or much of until I woke up on a hospital bed on the surface.” Kismet frowned. “What happened?”

Cain paused and looked like a life revelation had come over him. A light appeared in a dim lit room, and everything was suddenly clear to him.

“So… you truly don’t remember much?” Cain looked like he didn’t believe it.

“I don’t remember half of the tests unless I’m dreaming. I don’t even remember those. Just… one simple dream.” Kismet confessed and Cain just looked sorrowful.

“Kismet…” Cain spoke softly. Kismet didn’t know how he knew his name, but Kismet knew his name but not the face so it made sense. All Agents knew each other's name, even if they never even met or had a face to attach it to.

Kismet was knocked out of that small mind tirade as Cain leaned in and kissed Kismet’s forehead softly and carefully, like Kismet was a young and injured child.

“I’m so sorry… it must be tough.” Cain stood up and held out his hand. “Do you want to dance with me?”

Kismet looked at the hand before he smiled. This was the same guy who pinned him against the wall, but also probably saved his life.

“Sure.” Kismet took his hand and pulled himself up, stumbling into Cain’s arms.

Cain just grinned and pulled him into the crowd.

-

Kismet slowly opened his eyes as he could feel the bed creak under him, dipping to compensate for the other that weighed more than him.

"Eight..." The quiet voice coerced him. "I'm so sorry for everything."

Kismet turned to look at the Cain, blue eyes meeting green. "It's fine, Three."

He doesn't remember what Three was apologizing for, but his fellow agent looked so troubled. He wanted to remember whatever happened.

Kismet doesn’t remember what happened after that, but he fell back asleep peacefully, the cool sheets on his bare back felt good. He felt safe.


	4. 104808-80-02

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Take this with a grain of salt.
> 
> It's 12.30 in the morning when I wrote and automatically posted it.
> 
> This is just introducing sudden serious background information.
> 
> This wasn't a flashback or dream for Kismet. Legit, it's just two scenes that he wouldn't remember besides the end of the second one.
> 
> It helps build more I'm trying to write.

Sirens blared above the young Octoling as he ran down the corridor. His breathing was staggered and he felt like he was running a marathon.

All around him was chaos. Octarians were yelling out orders and the younger ones were trying to get to their weapons.

“104808-80-02!” 

The young Octoling quickly turned to see one of his commanders holding an extra weapon for him.

“Take this and join your Squad Leader 80-01 at the Zappofish containment! Now!” His commander threw the weapon at him, which he caught effortlessly and nodded.

He ran down the next staircase and burst through the door to see a familiar Octoling trying to calm the Zappofish.

“Halona!” He cried and ran up to her. “Is he okay?”

“Two!” Halona turned and nodded. “He's just spooked. Go grab the food from other there and bring it back.”

He nodded and his eyes briefly connected to her own green eyes, which were flecked with pink to match her tentacle unlike the rest, before he ran to a nearby table and opened a container.

He took a scoop full of the food they had for him and started to bring it over when the burst open, scaring the two. The boy dropped the scoop, falling onto his butt as Halona dashed behind a counter.

There stood an Inkling. His tentacles were blue pulled back into a ponytail, or a bun. His piercing blue eyes scanned the room before he spotted the boy Octoling.

The Inkling grimaced as the boy scooted away, his back hitting a counter. The Inkling then turned, deciding to ignore him, and lifted his weapon to shoot the Zappofish container and took the fish before leaving.

Once the Inkling left, the boy let out a loud sob and ran over to Halona, hugging onto her. He didn't sign up for this. He just wanted to live in peace. Not living in fear from an Inkling child that was rampaging through their home, taking what little resources that the Inklings had left or given them to survive.

“Hey, hey, Two.” Halona whispered. “It's okay. He's gone.”

The boy nodded and let Halona wipe his tears away. The Inkling was gone. They were going to be praised for trying to defend the Zappofish, even if they failed. They wouldn't die yet.

The Octoling boy didn't know that was the first time he'd ever see that Agent, and not the last. At that moment he just wanted to never see him again and hide away.

-

The second time the Octoling boy ever saw the Inkling was a surprise to him.

One moment he was on patrol, the next there was an Inkling on top of him, staring at him with wide eyes.

The boy realized what had happened and shoved his hand onto the Inkling's face, trying to get him off.

The Inkling just grunted and spoke a different language, which sounded so much different.

“I can't understand you! Get off!” The boy cried and finally kicked him off.

The Inkling paused and stared at the boy. Then he just… poked him. The Inkling just have realized that his weapon had been knocked away and he wasn't a threat. 

Yeah, the Octoling was one of the best in his class, but without his weapon he wasn't much in direct combat.

The Inkling looked closer and took some of the ink that was on the nozzle of his gun and smeared it across the boy's face. This made the Octoling hiss in pain, baring his teeth at him.

The Inkling seemed amused at this, like A 14 year old boy usually would when torturing a younger kid.

“104808-80-02?!” A voice suddenly called out and the Inkling looked up. The Octoling knew it was Halona.

He hissed again and the Inkling jumped up before dashing away, continuing on his path. After he was gone, he heard the footsteps of Halona approach. 

“Hey, are you Okay? You have blue ink on your face and the Inkling is back.” She frowned at him.

“He… didn't kill me.” The boy looked up to her.

“Consider yourself lucky. He killed four of our Squad.” Halona looked sad as she picked up his tossed weapon. “We have to go send them off tonight.”

The boy knew what this meant.

Each Squad had eight young siblings from birth grow up with each other. You learn how to work as one, and you grow as a team.

Two of their siblings died at the age of 8 at the hands of two female inklings. And now the last four was killed by this boy.

They were the last two left.

Halona thought the boy had taken everything from her within this short time.

“Halona…” The boy called out as she stood up.

“Yes, Two?” She turned to him. He could see the pain in her eyes.

“They'll turn us into specials for Octavio. I won't leave you until we find a way out of here. I promise. We can escape this pain together.” He promised to her.

Halona paused to stare at him, a look of awe on her face as she stared at her slightly smaller brother. He was the runt, but he was the best right hand she could have 

“Two… when we get out, let's try to stop this war for real and live our lives for our siblings.” She smiled.

The boy nodded and hugged onto her.


	5. At days like these, Kismet loves Cain the most.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So I'm almost done with Octo Expansion and I'm on the second or third part at the very end, and I keep dying by the water and I just thought
> 
> "Okay this must be so painful and traumatizing for him, the fuck?"
> 
> And Kismet is using sign language at one point because he couldn't speak back then, so his mind automatically went to sign language.
> 
> So uuuuh,,,, enjoy this chapter.

Agent Eight didn't know how many times he had tried to get over this part of the stretch home.

He could see Halona in the distance, waiting for him. She had managed to get over the obstacles before they descended into the water that threatened their life force.

Agent Eight took a deep breath as he aimed his weapon up to the platform that was floating down and he tried to jump into the ink. But he missed and a scream tore through his throat as he fell. He threw a hand out at Halona, who was watching wide eyed from her platform, calling out to him.

He could hear Pearl and Marina screaming in his earpiece like the other times he had fallen. Cap’n called out for him as his body hit the water, and the most excruciating pain that Eight had ever felt. The water bubbled around h ok m and ripped him apart. It felt like every fiber of his being was disintegrating until there was nothing left.

Eight woke up within the last second of him dying, a scream ripping from his throat and he failed his arms. Suddenly a bright light clicked on and blinded him, making Eight’s vision blur more past his tears.

A sob ripped through him as hands cupped his cheeks and someone spoke softly to him, asking him what was wrong.

Eight didn't understand a word the person was saying, the language suddenly foreign to him, like he was stuck inside of that hellish subway again. But his hands started to move in simple motions, trying to convey that he couldn't do it anymore. He couldn't look at Cucumber or whatever the damn slug's name was and watch as his sister died, or even be splatted over and over for the sake of a land he didn't know that even existed.

“I can't understand sign language.” The voice was becoming clear and Eight could feel them wiping the tears from his face. “Hey, I'm here, it's okay.” 

Where was here? It was too bright to be the subway system that he had never bothered to learn the name of. He just wanted out. Outoutoutoutout.

“Kismet.”

Eight opened his eyes more to see an Inkling above him. He had blue eyes and freckles all over his face from the time he had probably spent out in the sun. 

This inkling…

He wasn't in the Metro. He was at Cain’s house after a date. They had gone out and went shopping and got something to eat. Kismet was tired afterwards and fell asleep in Cain’s room.

It was a nightmare.

Kismet felt more tears fill his eyes as he wrapped his arms around Cain and pulled him on top of himself like his life depended on it. 

Cain his smaller boyfriend hug onto him and cry into his chest as he planted small kisses onto his ears. Cain didn't go through the same things that Eight had during that time, but he understood how much it affected the two Octo Agents. Halona had told him that Kismet experienced recurring nightmares of their time in the Metro, like she does, and how he wakes up not knowing where he is and not being able to speak. And he knows that Kismet had nightmares of their fight.

“Cain…” Kismet whined miserably. “Don't let them take me. I can't do this.”

Cain looked eye to eye with Kismet and nodded.

“I won't, Kismet. I won't.” Cain whispered and kissed his forehead. “Let's go see what Yuuko is doing. Maybe she's with Callie and Marie and they can tell us stories of fans again.”

Kismet nodded and Cain smiled as he picked up Kismet, who sat on his hip and wrapped his legs around Cain’s waist, and arms around his neck. 

Cain carried him out the room to find his sister and his fellow Agents.


	6. Kismet is a child and is too pure for this world.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy

Kismet hummed as he walked around the communal kitchen, picking up supplies from their designated spots. He was going to make brownies and maybe pasta afterwards. 

In all honesty, he wanted to try and impress Cain with his cooking.

Cain was so nice to him, and understood a lot. He tried to help Kismet through his troubles instead of just pushing them off or just standing there. It warmed his heart, seeing that Cain could deal with it, unlike Xander.

“Hey, Kismet. What are you doing up this late?”

Of course.

“Hey, Cain!” Kismet flashed Cain a smile from where he stood on his little step stool, reaching for the baking soda on the top shelf.

“Do you need help?” Kismet could hear the smug smile through Cain’s voice.

“No!” Kismet huffed as he reached for the baking soda again.

Cain chuckled and picked it up from the shelf and kissed Kismet’s cheek.

“See, not that hard.” Cain sat the baking soda down and helped get the rest of the higher ingredients.

And with this, idle chat was held between the two. They talked about turf war, and how their missions were going. Kismet enjoyed talking about such small and insignificant things in his life, like how annoying some of the kids in the terf war mode were and how elitist some of the kids got in Ranked and League.

Kismet glanced at Cain as he mixed the brownies. Cain was cleaning the brownie pan and talking about some kid who got angry because their team lost and his rank went down, just because one of the others twisted their ankle and they had to forfeit. Kismet could see the smile reach Cain’s blue eyes. His eyes were a clear blue, almost as light as the medium blue as his tentacles were. His freckles were dusted across his face, not enough to be cluttered, but enough to see from a distance. It fit him so well, with his almost serious face. Kismet didn’t have his platform shoes that he usually wore when he was doing agent work, so Cain towered over him. Kismet really hated how short he was compared to the others. He was about Five foot Four and the others were all almost Six foot or almost there. Cain was in fact the tallest, but Yuuko was probably Five foot Six, as Halona was Five foot Eight. It wasn’t fair. 

Kismet looked back to the batter as Cain dried the dish and sat it back onto the countertop. Kismet brought the stirring spoon up to his mouth and gave it a lick, trying to taste to see if he needed more sugar or salt. He then felt a wack to the back of his head.

“Ow!” Kismet whined and looked up quickly to see Cain frowning at him.

“You’re going to get sick. Stop it.” Cain pat his cheek and kissed it. “Can’t have you getting sick.”

“I do this all the time, Cain. I won’t get sick.” Kismet huffed, turning away from the older Agent.

Cain came up behind him, wrapping his arms around Kismet and sat his head above Kismet’s.

“Oh really? Can I have a taste then?” Cain asked.

“Sure.” Kismet started to lift up the spoon, but Cain had another plan.

He tilted Kismet’s chin up and kissed him like that.

Kismet stared up at him in shock before making an ungodly noise and looking away. Cain just laughed and hugged onto him. Pink blush, mimicking the ink that Kismet had used last, was spreading across his face.

“Rude.” Kismet mumbled.


	7. The Kids Aren't Alright

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to:
> 
> I don't proof read when I finish writing at 12:30 in the morning. Its legit so late and I have classes soon for college. There goes my sleeping pattern.
> 
> But uhhhh,,
> 
> This follows Cain's narrative and he explains some missing scenes from Kismet's memories and one of them is graphic. The last one is graphic. Its when he wakes up from sanitation. You've been warned.

Cain stared at Kismet as he moved around the weapons testing area in the back of Sheldon’s shop. Kismet moved around with great precision, swiping the brush up quickly to flick ink up at the test dummies with grace.

Cain really did love Kismet.

Cain remembers the first time he saw Kismet. It was a year before Kismet surfaced and Cain was out with Yuuko doing recon missions to scope out some of the areas before Cap’n would bring them on the big mission.

The sun was going down when they slipped through the sewer grates and into the long tunnel below them. The whole thing was covered in ink, so they had to be careful to not hit the sides and injure themselves. They knew it was a trade route of the Octarians. They had seen them briefly before they slipped away. 

At the bottom, they made sure to fall out of the range of the surprisingly pink ink. They looked around and saw they were in some type of underground tunnel system, maybe a subway system? Cain didn’t know. He never personally seen one before, but Cap’n told him and Yuuko about them. 

But as they walked, they could hear other footsteps and quiet talking. They creeped around the corner to see that there was two octolings, a girl and a guy from the looks of it, standing at their posts at the entrance of a door. They were talking quietly in their own language, which was similar to the one that Cain knew, but different enough for Cain to not be able to distinguish. 

“ Heuvu veu senu hea Zappofish?” The female spoke and the boy, who was much shorter than her, just shrugged. He didn’t seem that interested. Cain could tell from where he stood that the boy was a higher rank than her, but most likely in the same platoon.

“Ney! Kismet, hue nun spok et un?” The girl smiled at him and he actually looked at her this time and frowned. The girl stared at him and seemed to be reading his expression.

Cain had heard about how some octolings had selective muteness. He also knew that some of them could communicate without even speaking, and it was from them being connected genetically. Cain didn’t know if the two were connected like that, but eventually they broke eye contact, the girl breaking it first and huffing.

“So serious.” That, other than Zappofish, Cain understood.

“The boy seems to be in charge of this outpost. Cap’n said they might put the higher ups on the outside to secure better, since they’re better fighters.” Yuuko checked a small notepad she had and made sure she was seeing the right information. “A single Zappofish should be in here, and not the Great Zappofish.” 

“So he’s their best one in there… He doesn’t seem that great.” Cain raised an eyebrow.

“Don’t judge him. I’ve beat one just like him before. It was hard. I think they put the runts in more training. Sides, he’s a mute. He could have a special.” Yuuko smacked his head, and the smack caught the smaller’s attention. The small octoling looked up, and his piercing green eyes scanned the area before hitting Cain. 

He did a small, almost unnoticeable head movement and the girl snapped to attention and pointed her blaster at Cain and Yuuko.

“INKLINGS!” The girl cried out and Cain could feel the air around the room get thick.

The boy turned to the girl and spoke quietly to her, moving his hand almost frantically, but she shook her head no before she ran towards the two agents.

“OLIVIA!” The boy yelled, his voice sounding scratchy and panicked, like he hadn’t used it much.

The girl didn’t listen as she shot at Yuuko, and Yuuko dodged with Cain. The two rushed at the girl and quickly splatted her. This left the boy standing there, staring in shock and fear. He let out a choked noise and smacked his hand onto the ID pad on the door and ran inside as the door opened. Sirens started to blare and octolings ran out of the door.

Cain didn’t see the octoling for any of the other time during the attack, but he wish he had. He didn’t attack them. He just tried to save the other and run. Cain had seen freckles on the boy’s face when he got closer. He also saw the grief on his face. He must have lost a sister that day. Maybe more.

Cain saw the octoling two times before the final time, before Kismet became an Agent obviously. The fight that separated them all and made Kismet an Agent.

Cain had remembered his face, and the other girl’s face. He had freckles and she was way taller than him. But seeing them on the battlefield was odd.

The two had backpacks on their back, their ink tanks slung over the bags. The two were running through the underground. They had simple blasters at their sides and they moved quickly through the corridors. They seemed panicked as they tried to move away from the heart of the commotion behind them.

The girl saw Yuuko and Cain and tensed up. She smacked the smaller boy and he looked up. There was an odd look on his face before the boy raised his weapon at Cain and Yuuko. Tears gathered in his eyes and he yelled something at them.

“Shit…” Yuuko grumbled and brought out her own weapon. “Let’s get this over.”

“Have you seen these two before?” Cap’n asked, frowning as the girl slowly tried to push the guy to move on. “Just get them and we can move on.”

“Yeah… I’ve seen him before. The girl only once.” Cain brought out his own weapon.

“Let’s get this over with.” Yuuko sighs and charged the two, Cain following suit.

The fight was automatically started with that, and it was a hard fight. The two seemed more in sync than Yuuko and himself. Cain was rather impressed with how long the two had lasted.

“You go, Threes!” Cap’n cheered them on, and the boy turned to Cap’n and raised his weapon to shoot. Cain quickly reached out and grasped his wrist, lifting it up.

“Not today, Octoling.” Cain threw the gun by jerking his hand to the side and the octoling hissed before trying to jump up and bite Cain’s wrist.

“Fuck!” Cain cursed and dropped the Octoling, who automatically backed up and smirked.

“Try-uh ag-hain, Inkling.” The boy then got ready to launch himself, but suddenly seized up and fell to the ground. 

Cain turned quickly and saw that Yuuko had fallen also. Then the girl octoling and Cap’n fell. The next thing Cain knew, his vision became black and he fell down.

-

The next thing that Cain could tell you about, other than his time with Yuuko in the facility, was that he had broken a blender, which held the octolings and Cap’n in.

But the next one was when everything had stopped being blurry and automatic. He felt like he was moving through sap, and his sight was all messed up. He could barely see or control himself. It was almost painful how empty he felt. How out of control he was.

But when everything cleared, Cain could feel his breathing finally become clear. Clear that he was breathing heavily in someone's face. 

Cain was straddling someone, he could feel so. The body under him was shaking violently and very small. His vision slowly came back and he could see his hands were in fists, hovering in front of him, and in between the person he was on. They were all bruised and raw, ink that was his own and a different color smeared across, burning him some. They were shaking and he could see finally who was under him.

The boy octoling he had been fighting before, and saved, was laying there. His face was bruising up and busted. The boy was gasping for air through his split and cracked lips, ink blood oozing out of the fresh wound. The boy’s eye was already swelling almost completely shut as he struggled to keep them open. He was crying, small incoherent pleas being whispered to Cain between the stuttering breathing that seemed to become more shallow and pained. Bruises were already forming on his pale freckled face, which was obviously darkening and had ink blood splattering it, Cain and the boy’s own. Even his nose, which looked crooked, was oozing out blood.

Cain didn’t know if it was hot, or gruesome. Maybe both?

A yell was heard from behind him as Cain’s vision blurred again and his head was suddenly light again. Hands pushed him off of the boy, and Cain could see Cap’n pulling him away as the girl octoling suddenly appeared to grab onto the boy. Then everything went black.

Cain didn’t realize the implications of it all, or had even seen the boy until years later. He knew there was another agent, which was the boy, but he stayed away in fear of how the boy would react. But after hearing how he didn’t remember the events or even knew who Cain was, he had faith in creating a friendship with Kismet. Their first initial push in the turf war was to joke around and see if he actually remembered him or not. Which he seemed to not, but the party was a breaker. 

Cain truly loved Kismet.

He was a nice boy that he had come to know over the last year. Kismet meant the world to Cain and he wanted Kismet to understand that he felt bad for the past, but they can overcome it if Kismet ever remembered it. 

“Cain!” Kismet called out, knocking Cain out of his inner thoughts.

“Yeah?” Cain smiled as the smaller boy ran up.

“I’m gonna get this one, and crush you in a turf match!” Kismet grinned and laughed.

“You’re on, small fry.” Cain grinned.

Cain really did love Kismet.


	8. Demons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just letting you know, this is in a different time than the others. This is about a year, year and a half after the expansion, so you get to finally see some of the after effects.
> 
> Just to give some context:
> 
> After kismet was beat to pulp and all, Halona actually defeated the final boss by herself and then she collapsed and they both spent about a month in the hospital together, then kismet spent two more months in a mini coma. That's where he regained his past memories but in exchange he lost bits and pieces of the expansion. So he remembers the test, one of the Thangs, but he doesn't remember past really stepping into the blender.
> 
> Also, I felt like Kismet would like the Squid Sisters more than Off The Hook, but he enjoys being with Marina. He sees Pearl as an annoying gremlin that he kinda loves. Agent Six is Pearl and Agent 7 is Marina btw. Agent Five is going to come in later on lololol.
> 
> But yeah. I wrote this at 1am, didn't proof read it. I got home from work legit an hour before I started this and basically went off of my prompt and just couldn't think straight so that's why its so sloppy.
> 
> I also updated the playlist so go check it out!
> 
> Please comment your thoughts!

Kismet turned quickly as a faceless figure darted past him quickly. He was breathing heavily as he held his blaster to his chest, trying to guess where the figure would show up next.

Kismet was on a large platform looking space that held two wall looking boxes which he used as a barrier. There was a platform slightly up and to the side where the figure would jump back to, to his despair. The figure was in a loop of using different attacks to get to Kismet and he couldn’t take how much his bones ached, how horrible the screams in the background were, how tired he felt. He just wanted to go home. Go pile up with his sisters and sleep. But no, he had to fight the faceless boy until he won and got to who knows where.

Kismet jumped behind one of the walls as the boy threw a bomb at him, causing the platform to shake slightly as he jumped out of the splash zone. He grit his teeth and quickly turned and shot blindly. He could hear the boy grunt as a shot hit him while he had rolled closer.

Kismet’s breathing became heavier as he sent a final shot, the ink hitting some of the teal goop that seemed to just drip and drip from the boy’s face. It just kept appearing and dripping off like a parasite. This seemed to make the boy pause before the boy jumped on top of Kismet, swinging his fist at Kismet’s face. 

Kismet let out a choked cry at the impact and he could feel pain erupt across his face. The pain started to blend together as he just…. Gave up. As the boy kept punching him and basically tried to kill Kismet with his own hands, he went numb and small pleas started to spill from his lips, his voice cracking from years of not using it and his deformity due to his runt body.

“Please….” It slipped from his mouth and the hands stopped for a second, like the boy was hesitating. Then a searing pain suddenly slapped across his face and his body jolted up and awake again.

-

Kismet let out a scream, startling the two other bodies in the room awake.

“Kismet!” A male voice called out and he felt a dip in the bed he was laying on.

Kismet was hyperventilating as he put his hands up to his face, scratching at his face with a force.

“Shit! Halona, grab his legs, he’s going to start kicking when we stop him.” The voice called out again and Kismet could feel someone get on the other side of the bed.

“No. Don’t let him get me.” Kismet’s hands momentarily stopped their scratching to sign something to Halona and going to punch the body above him.

“Shit!” The voice cursed and grabbed onto Kismet’s hands, causing pure panic to flood his system and his reflexes told him to let out another wail and try to kick the person off. Hands quickly grabbed onto his legs and hold them down as Kismet let out an ungodly noise and struggled against them. 

“Kismet, honey, it’s okay. It's me, Halona. Your big sister.” A new voice spoke calmly and sweetly to him, in Octarian. This made Kismet slow down his struggles. He couldn’t see anything but blurred pink blobs. 

“Kismet, it's okay. You’re safe with me and Xavier. Remember Xavier? Your boyfriend. You’re above ground. The Promise Land.” The girl, who he now recognized as his older sister Halona, spoke to him.

His hands twitched from in their hold and then signed “Halona. Safe?” while he waited for her response. Everything was clearing up now and he could see a green inkling boy above him. His eyes were orange and his hair a slicked back looking cut with green ink.

“Yeah. Safe. You’re not going to get hurt anymore, Kismet.” The boy, his boyfriend Xavier, smiled and leaned down to kiss his forehead.

Kismet was safe. He was in his shared dorm with Xavier and Halona. They had fallen asleep watching an old recording of a Squid Sisters concert from their old days. Everything was okay. No telephone talking to them. No sea snail thing just doing his job and running the tests in the metro. No faceless boy endlessly fighting him and beating him up.

Safe.

Kismet let out a deep breath and smiled at the two.

“Let go?” He signed and the two nodded and let him go.

“Was it the boy?” Halona asked as she moved to put her arms around Kismet, who just solemnly nodded.

“Faceless. Unbeatable. Terrifying. Death.” Kismet signed simple words, not wanting to explain fully.

“You’re okay now. He won’t ever get to you, whoever he is.” Xavier kissed his head again, and Kismet missed the look that Halona sent Xavier’s way.

“Hey, the plus side is that we can go see Callie and Marie today.” Halona smiled and nuzzled her brother, who leaned into her touch.

Callie and Marie had gratefully accepted the octolings into their life and tried to help them with getting used to inkling society. They didn’t want to leave it to Marina and Pearl, even if Pearl had basically helped Marina learn Inkish and helped her get used to everything. The two weren’t the best role models, but Callie and Marie weren’t really either. Marie was tired and lazy half of the time and Callie was overzealous at times and almost as bad as Off The Hook at times when it came to their attention span.

“You two get to have fun with the two girls while I have to go work with Sheldon and try to fix weapons.” Xavier scoffed but quickly smiled and wiggled his pointer finger against Kismet’s side, making him giggle. “What a lucky little boy.”

Kismet huffed and swatted his hand away. He brought his hands up then to start signing. “This is why I didn’t get a part time job that wasn’t Agent work.”

“Hey! I didn’t live here until almost a year ago! And I have student debt.” Xavier huffed.

“So sad. Play a tiny violin, Halona.” Kismet rolled his eyes and dropped his hands after he signed it.

The three of them broke into laughter and talked a bit more before Halona and Kismet decided to turn into their Octo form and lay on top of each other for some good sibling bonding and self reflection time.

-

Kismet and Halona walked out to the beautiful garden that they had in their Agent home, which was basically a large mansion outside of Inkopolis that they decided to hide away from society. The garden was in the center and as a big field that had beautiful plants growing around the center, which you had to take pathways to get to. There was tables and chairs with umbrella set out nicely. The sisters usually went out there to read or just bond quietly. The two were like any of the other Agents, close to their counterpart and just enjoyed their company.

Kismet walked to the tables with Halona to see Callie talking happily to Marie, who was sipping tea quietly. Marie was dressed in her normal Kimono and Callie was just in her casual hoodie and leggings. Just in Marie’s presence made him feel underdressed in his t-shirt and his tight leggings that he was given in his new wardrobe. 

“Ah! Kismet! Halona!” Callie grinned as she turned her attention from her cousin to the two octolings that appeared. “We have the tea ready!”

Marie looked up and a kinda smile spread across her face. “Hello.”

“Sorry we’re late. Kismet fell asleep after a bad awakening and slept in again.” Halona smiled and pat Kismet’s back before she sat down.

“I did not! You were supposed to be awake!” Kismet signed with a huff as he sat down.

“Mmm, was it the same nightmare again?” Marie asked as she handed the two siblings their tea. 

Kismet nodded and grimaced at the memory. He didn’t like talking about it much, and the two cousins knew it.

“Hey, we all have nightmares. I still have nightmares of when i was hypnotized!” Callie tried to help cheer him up. “I’m so glad we destroyed the glasses. I can still feel my mind calling for them sometimes.” 

“I appreciate the sentiment.” Kismet signed to her.

“Your signing has gotten much better.” Marie commented. “You’ve been studying again.”

Kismet had in fact been studying again. Since Kismet’s vocal chords were damaged more than they were already broken after whatever happened when they emerged from underground, he wasn’t able to speak at all. Halona wasn’t able to speak much, but that was because she was injured slightly and didn’t know the language well. They were grateful that Cap’n knew a good bit of Octarian, but none of the others knew so the two had resorted in learning Inkish and sign language at the same time. It was difficult, but the two managed to learn Inkish quite well. But sign language was giving Kismet a rough time because he woke up after Halona and had more of a healing time. The Inkish sign language was much different than any Octarian sign language he knew. But slowly, he learned and the other Agents learned. Takara, Callie, Marie, Cap’n, and Halona were the ones that could understand sign language the best. He didn’t interact with Yuuko enough to know if she knew and Xavier only knew to a certain point. He had also never met Yuuko’s counterpart. It was odd.

But Kismet had come so far and he was damn proud of himself and his friends.

“Yeah. I want to be more fluent since I’m better now.” Kismet smiled.

“I’m proud, Kismet.” Marie placed her hand onto Kismet’s.

Marie was probably Kismet's favorite of the two cousins. She was calm and usually too tired to care too much about a lot of things. She was understanding and a good listener. She also was quiet and Kismet appreciated that about her. And her ocasional snarky comments and jabs at the other Agents. When he first met Yuuko, Marie had loudly said that she was impressed that her and the other Agent 3 had found out what soap was when they came home after the whole underground fiasco. He truly appreciated Marie because he could understand her personality and associate better with her. She also personally sat down with him to help his sign language when she was home and not taking care of her massive garden. The garden was actually Marie’s. The whole mansion was the Squid Sister’s “escape home” as the cover was. 

“Thank you.” Kismet smiled and signed.

Marie reached up and pat his cheek, and he leaned into it. He loved the physical contact, especially after the years of not being able to show physical affection. This made him just want to curl up with a group of his closest “family” members in their squid and octo form and just sleep.

“Remember Kismet,” Marie spoke softly, trying to ignore her cousin that loudly laughed at whatever Halona said. “One day you’ll be able to speak and I’ll be able to hear your beautiful voice. Whoever you’ll be with will appreciate the time that you put into learning sign language and Inkish. Remember how proud we are and we are all here for you.”

Kismet teared up some and nodded. 

“We will get past your inner demons, Kismet. We will defeat the boy and he won’t ever hurt you again. He never will see you as an enemy but embrace you.”


	9. Halona tells the trust to everyone.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so ANOTHER chapter today, but this one is written at 2am and I'm dead tired and about to pass out.
> 
> Basically, it finally explains the physical lore of the new generation of Octolings and why they had so many siblings and their connections. Also, basically it helps me explain why Kismet can't speak in the beginning and why it took him so long to get better.
> 
> Also, I'm really excited to bring in Agent 5 soon. I am using my personal avatar for it, and she's basically my number one OC out of basically these kids. She was my OG avatar and I love her. She's not in here because its the wrong time period but she might just show up soon.
> 
> I'll make a timeline for Chapter 10 and have it at the end for everything that we've gone over!

Halona looked around the room of Agents with a bit of anger and dread.

Halona had been out of the hospital for about a month now, and Kismet was still in a coma and struggling to keep alive. They wouldn’t let her go see him and she was starting to become restless and she was going to snap if she didn’t see Kismet.

“Halona, can you just tell us what is going on?” Marie frowned at the young octoling that looked ready to choose between flight or fight and she would choose fight.

“Me and Kismet… We’re the new generation of Octolings.” Halona winced at her words and glanced at Marina, who sat next to her and was trying to smile at her to encourage her. Marina knew what she was going through, even if Marina wasn’t in that new generation of Octolings.

“What do you mean?” Yuuko crossed her arms and frowned at the poor octoling girl.

“It means that…” Halona took a deep breath and sighed. “Marina is the generation above me. She is the last of her type to have been in the army. After the first Calamari Inkantation, a lot of the octolings were scrambled and some tried to escape. They weren’t connected and broke out of their… brainwashing if you want to call it.”

“Yeah… we all know this.” Cain frowned. He was there for it.

“They started to show individuality and a lot of them died from trying to defect or they couldn’t survive or deal with what they had been awakened to. Our birth rates dwindled and Octavio couldn’t stand to see his children going out like dying lights. So he started to take each naturally born child and… replicating them.” Halona shuddered. “Each child would get seven others just like them. Each with a number. The originals would be assigned a name like normally, and a number to identify their… clutch.” 

“Wait…” Xavier sat up more and frowned. “You’re saying they legit cloned you guys?”

“Yes…” Halona looked away slightly. “I was the first born. I was the original. Kismet was… the last one. He was the runt. That’s why he’s so much shorter and weaker than me and our siblings. But they trained him more and with the cloning came our mental and almost physical connection the whole clutch got. We all survived off of each other and we were raised to have hive mentality, but I was the leader of my group. Kismet was my right hand in everything. We eventually got high enough to have important roles with the rest of our clutch. We had six sisters.”

“Six?” Takara frowned. “Are the rest of you underground still?”

“No… When Yuuko and Cain invaded us with Cap’n, they killed so many of our people. We didn’t have respawn technology. Not in the Octarian empire. The Metro kept it from us. So all of them died. You killed Olivia right in front of Kismet.” Halona teared up.

“I… we didn’t know.” Yuuko reached a hand out and placed it on her shoulder. “If we knew…”

“We can’t undo it now.” Halona wiped her face. “But with them gone we became weaker and so we tried to save ourselves and run away. We found you three and then everything else fell into place. If we didn’t leave, Octavio would have put us in a higher position and we just wanted away. Runts like Kismet are usually praised because they’re smarter to make up for their physical weakness. But without me he couldn’t do anything.”

“So you have to be with Kismet so he can heal because you’re the original and the connection will help him heal?” Marie spoke calmly. “I understand. I say we let her in.”

“I think it’ll be best. Takara, go with her to keep her company.” Cap’n waved Takara to join her.

“Yes sir!” The energetic girl nodded and jumped up and followed Halona.

It was quiet until they reached the room and Halona ran to her brother’s side.

“So… what happens if you’re a runt?” Takara asked.

“You can see he’s physically underdeveloped. He’s small and weak. His vocal chords and auditory helping nerves never fully formed. It was a disaster when they found out he was a runt. He was taken from us for a week before he was returned tired and crying in pain. Runts were overworked to make them just as great and to try and force final developments.” Halona kissed his hand. “But Kismet never got past his final puberty growth and he was lucky to even get out of his child form.”

“Well, I’m glad he did and you two are okay.” Takara smiled. 

Halona turned slightly to look at Takara and smile back. She liked Takara. They were the same age and she understood Halona very well.

“Thank you. I’m glad you’re okay as well.”


End file.
